TANZANIA: AMECEA Conducts ICT Workshop to nine Dioceses in Tanzania
The Archbishop of Mwanza, Most Rev. Jude Thaddeus Ruwa’ichi has applauded AMECEA for its initiative to promote ICT in the region, Conference and at Diocesan level while asking the participants to make effective usage of their knowledge acquired from the training for the benefits of the people of God in their dioceses.
Speaking at his residence when the participants of AMECEA ICT Workshop on Website creation and administration paid him a courtesy call to his residence, Archbishop Ruwa’ichi asked AMECEA Social Communications to continue championing the communication apostolate in the region.
The Archbishop said, “Technology is moving very fast and we have to brace ourselves to move with it,” he said adding that “Those who fail to embrace the technology, risk being left behind and consequently risk missing out the opportunities and benefits that come with the new technology.”
“In the Archdiocese of Mwanza, we are trying to see to it that we use effectively all opportunities which are at our disposal to make sure that all pastoral agents liaise with the modern technology,” he said.
Giving his vote of thanks to the Archbishop; Rev. Fr. Chrisantus Ndaga, the Coordinator of AMECEA Social Communications Department said that the ICT Workshop on Website creation and administration training is part of the three-year ICT program of AMECEA. The first year focused at improving ICT in AMECEA, Secretariat and Conferences through training and consultancy.
Fr Ndaga said that the program is now in its second year and that the area of focus is more to the Dioceses in collaboration with the department of communication of the conferences. “Tanzania becomes the first beneficiary of the program and will be followed by Malawi and Zambia in the near future.
“We have established that a number of dioceses are spending heavily on running and hosting their websites which are not user friendly, and this has discouraged other dioceses from establishing websites. We have planned to support the dioceses during the second and the third years of project,” he said adding that “The training intended to impart skills on user-friendly website creation and administration using WordPress Content Management System (CMS).
The AMECEA Coordinator further said, “We began with Tanzania because they were ready for the training. However, owing to the fact that Tanzania is a very big conference, we could only conduct the workshop to a few dioceses because the exercise is a hectic one and requires one-on-one assistance from the facilitators. We hope that after covering other conferences, we will plan for a similar workshop for the remaining dioceses in Tanzania.”
In this first training which was held at St. Augustine University of Tanzania (SAUT) from 22nd to 25th May this year, AMECEA collaborated with TEC-Communication department in the planning and implementation of the workshop whereby participants from nine Dioceses/Archdioceses benefitted from the training. These include Archdioceses of Dar-es-Salaam, Mwanza, Arusha and Tabora; Also Dioceses of Tanga, Musoma, Njombe, Geita and Shinyanga.
He said that ICT program for AMECEA is supported by Healey Family Foundation – US Based Charity organization, and it intends to build capacity on ICT activities for the conferences and Dioceses of AMECEA region.
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